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Oh no! Not that! I made an accurate observation: this thread is him talking to himself. Is it not? Don't kill the messenger just because you don't like his accurate message. By the way, I did no ad hominem attacks whatsoever, even though he cannot say the same. Do you indulge in hypocrisy?

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While the Salary Cap situation looks grim at this point, the Steelers are not without their options before FA hits.

The first aim will be to lose the roughly $16 million they are projected to be over the cap. This can actually be achieved by relatively few moves-

1. Restructure LaMarr Woodley & Lawrence Timmons, again. Woodley's base salary in 2013 will be $9m with $4.24m in bonus payments, to add up to the Cap total of $13.24m. If the Steelers convert most of his 2013 salary into bonus payments (like they did last year) his cap total drops from $13.24m to $7.24m, saving $6m in the process. It will mean his bonus payments rise about $2m a season- which will catch up eventually, however. Timmons is roughly the same- his cap hit is at $11.16m, but by converting his salary to bonus his new cap total becomes $8.16m- saving $3m. That's $9 saved in 2 players.

2. Restructure Ben Roethlisberger- Base salary in 2013 is $11.6m with a bonus of $8.995m for a cap hit of $20.595m. If the Steelers convert his base salary to, say, $1.1m & move the rest of his money into bonus payments ($12.495m in 2013) his cap hit drops from $20.595m to $13.595m- saving $7m against the cap.

Those 3 moves creates the space under the cap that the NFL demands prior to the start of FA. To then create enough space to sign their own FA's, or other team's FA's, they'll need to be a little more creative. Remember that after all the RFA's & ERFA's are tendered, that'll add another $7.75m to the cap number (and adding 7 players to the roster taking the Steelers to 42, from memory).

To get from $1.5m over the cap, to a position where the Steelers can make a serious attempt at signing any of their own FA's (How much will Keenan Lewis cost? Can the Steelers even go close to having the cap space??) they'll have to make some 'serious' decisions on some popular players.

It might be that the Steelers NEED to restructure Brown already- converting his (approx) $4m salary to about $1, and saving a further $3m.

The Steelers could look to actually extend Heath Miller. Miller is 31, and realistically has probably 3 years of effective play left in him. To scrap his $7.985m contract & get him on a more cap friendly... say, $4-$5m cap hit could save the Steelers some necessary cap space.

Just looking at the figures... if the Steelers seriously want to retain Lewis & Starks, and even Foster...they'll have to be very serious in their cap reduction moves. Some genuine talent might have to be sacrificed in order for the team to remain competitive.

The development of guys like Worilds, Cortez Allen, Mike Adams & Marcus Gilbert, Ziggy Hood & Cam Heyward will go a very long way to determining the success of the Steelers in 2013- these guys could have very significant roles.